Montford Pointer recalls “Hard Core” career

Turner Blount, 88, an original Montford Point Marine, was one of the original Montford Point Marines trained there in the early 1940s

John Althouse

By THOMAS BRENNAN Daily News Staff

Published: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 at 10:03 AM.

While he doesn’t recall exactly what Pacific island he was on during the blast, Turner Blount will never forget seeing the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima after the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb.

For Blount, as he stood in the Pacific, it was hard to believe that just a few years earlier he was in North Carolina training aboard Montford Point under the instruction of Sgt. Maj. Gilbert “Hashmark” Johnson and Sgt. Maj. Edgar Huff, the first black sergeants major in the Marine Corps.

“They trained us hard,” Blount said of basic training aboard the segregated Montford Point. “We had something to prove.”

Starting in 1942 when the first black Marines joined the Corps, the Marine Corps was completely racially segregated. Blount said they weren’t even welcomed out in Jacksonville on liberty and when they would travel to Camp Lejeune with their weapons, they had to do so by boat, crossing the New River to avoid going out in town.

It was not what he expected when he volunteered for the Marine Corps in 1943, he said.

“I volunteered because I did not want to be drafted,” Blount said. “I wanted to be with the best so I joined the Marine Corps.”

Within a few short months Blount was sailing across the Pacific to participate in the battles of Saipan, Tinian and Okinawa — battles he said he wished not to talk about in detail.

While he doesn’t recall exactly what Pacific island he was on during the blast, Turner Blount will never forget seeing the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima after the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb.

For Blount, as he stood in the Pacific, it was hard to believe that just a few years earlier he was in North Carolina training aboard Montford Point under the instruction of Sgt. Maj. Gilbert “Hashmark” Johnson and Sgt. Maj. Edgar Huff, the first black sergeants major in the Marine Corps.

“They trained us hard,” Blount said of basic training aboard the segregated Montford Point. “We had something to prove.”

Starting in 1942 when the first black Marines joined the Corps, the Marine Corps was completely racially segregated. Blount said they weren’t even welcomed out in Jacksonville on liberty and when they would travel to Camp Lejeune with their weapons, they had to do so by boat, crossing the New River to avoid going out in town.

It was not what he expected when he volunteered for the Marine Corps in 1943, he said.

“I volunteered because I did not want to be drafted,” Blount said. “I wanted to be with the best so I joined the Marine Corps.”

Within a few short months Blount was sailing across the Pacific to participate in the battles of Saipan, Tinian and Okinawa — battles he said he wished not to talk about in detail.

“There’s things you don’t want to remember,” said Blount, who admits to having nightmares that stem from his service. “You got your weapon and you just searched for peace by killing people.”

Not long after his service in the Pacific, Blount was discharged only to be recruited for the Korean War three years later. While traveling via ship to Korea, the war ended and he was redirected home.

Blount would work his way through the ranks over the years before going to Vietnam and earning the title of “Hard Core Warrior” for his participation in the three of the largest wars in United States history.

Despite the integration his duties in Vietnam consisted of cleaning up dead bodies after major battles as part of the “Black Angels” — also something he chooses not to talk about in detail.

During Vietnam Blount was ending his career as an infantryman just as full integration began.

“It was nice to see everything we worked for finally coming around and seeing people accepted for the merits of their work,” said Blount.

Contact Military Reporter Thomas Brennan at 910-219-8453 or thomas.brennan@jdnews.com . Follow him on Twitter @ thomasjbrennan.